"Elgar"

The date was 25th of December, 1848 and the sun had just set. The streets were full of families and shiny lanterns in their hands. Kids are laughing and running, all while their parents are slowly walking down the same streets they’d grew up on. Houses are shining in the spirit of the night with steam escaping from windows and travelling all around neighbourhoods, blessing people with the scent of hot bread and freshly baked cookies. Supper had just finished, so while kids and their parents stroll the packed streets of one Victorian Christmas, grandparents were preparing sweet deserts for their return. Every kid was supposed to be fed a freshly baked sweet just before bedtime, so they’d have the kindest and purest dreams. All bad and evil was set on exile, or healed by the power of forgiveness and change. Nobody was going to let the fear of lurking evil ruin a young kid’s most impactful night of the year, but there’s just so much a parent can do to protect their kid from the living and physical problems of the world. What happens in the imaginative head of a child could never be controlled by another.
That night evil had found a pathway in to the mind of one boy. The boy had always been in a foster home and he’d never known the warm touches of a mother, or father. What made that particular night special was that it was the first night where he’d be the only kid left in the foster home. Either friends or even bullies had been taken in to the households of families just in time for the holidays. The kid was little and scrawny looking, awkward and shy and hard to reach too. Never had he been left alone still, especially on Christmas Eve. Watching the lively city from far and high, the boy was pouring tears all day for the weird pick that he was. After a whole day of thunderously attacking thoughts, with simple questions from the sorts of “What?” and “WHY?”, little Elgar had arrived at the point of total fear from being taken by somebody into their lives. The boy believed that after a short period he was going to be returned for the ghastly weirdo that he was, never being able to settle into common folk’s happiness. So much of raging negativity had settled in him that he felt as if cursed by Apophis himself.
The last ray of sunlight was a moment he feared all day, believing he’d be hunted by the wicked. Scared and shivering, the boy ran. First through the corridors of the foster home, and then down the long hills leading to the city. With every rushed step, he felt as if from behind there was another person consistently matching his pace. The child never dared to slow down, believing he’d keep his distance just out of reach from his… chaser. After entering the city, hope that somebody would see the shadowy chaser and prevent him from inflicting anymore sadness was soon dead. People didn’t even seem to see the poor kid. Screaming and banging on the doors he furiously passed by, nobody showed any acknowledgement of his existence. That night was as if he’d began to disappear. First he vanished from the hearts of people, and now from the eyes!? He though that if the shadow catches him, he’d vanish from their life’s too. Still running trough the city, which got dimmer and dimmer with every hour, getting to doors just moments before they’d get lock shut.

The night had progressed so much that all but 2 houses were locked and dark for the rest of the late holiday. Soon he needed a rest, or risk being caught. For a moment he stopped hearing steps from behind, so he rested and looked up.
Seeing the lights of both homes reflect on the high clouds, Elgar thought:
As long as there’s light during the darkest nights, there’s a purpose for someone.
The houses being equidistant to him meant that he didn’t have to think a lot about choosing. The kid continued running in the direction of the first home (the one on the right). Running through the already darkened alleys, he was closing up on the house, but so was the shadow on him. The boy was just a human, so tiredness was overtaking. Soon the kid reached the house on the right. Elgar sprinted to the front door and screamed: Anybody home?! Please! Anybody home?! ;
The boy was running to windows and even went around the house, but while it was fully lit, as if nobody was really home. All he could hear from inside was this vague irregular beeping sound. He thought to himself: Hey! The sound is almost like… But before he could finish his thoughts, everything went really quite. All of a sudden even a cricket couldn’t be heard. Nothing, but the ever so slightly speeding up sound from the house. As terrifying as the moment had been, the kid had no choice, but to rush to the next and final house. Moments after starting to run he once more felt the presence of his chaser, but this time he wasn’t behind him. The shadow had always felt like a man or similar being, but this time he’d felt much worse. Elgar could sense his presence from all sides, and before he knew… a lightning! It had hit the top of the first house, setting the roof on fire. Monstrous thunderstorm had formed in an instant with powerful lightnings falling all over the city. From that moment the boy ran faster that ever. Thunder lightings were falling near him, with a couple that were too close.
Thunder storms like this shouldn’t… This is not real!
The boy said.

Running trough trees, houses and lightnings, Elgar was starting to see the final house emerge from between the trees. From there onward as if the storm had started to mellow out.
The feeling of the shadow had disappeared, which made the kid even more nervous.
Finally reaching the doorstep of the house, the kid, slowly with a restless
quite voice says:
Let me in… please. He’ll come back, and this time I have no were to go.
I don’t want to go;

The same beeping sound can be heard from inside the house, but this time much slowly.
Flashes of light can be seen coming from every room. Resting on the doorstep, the kid prepared him self for the worst, but then… The door unlocked!
With great effort, he stood up and opened it to see… a mirror, but that was not himself being reflected. The mirror had showed the shadow as his reflection in full sight. Too tired to run anymore, Elgar went on his knees and spoke:
“You’re not evil, you don’t want to hurt me. You’re Death, you’re here with a purpose.
I’m I alone?”
Death: No
Elgar: I know what the beeping noise is. Has my fate been decided?
Death: Yes
Death touches the boy’s heart and the beeping sound became one constant note.
Death and the mirror disappeared, so it was just the boy in the house. Following the constant note, the boy arrives in a room and in that room he sees himself holding Death’s scythe on a bed surrounded by his family. Slowly he walked to himself and whispered to his ear: I’m still here.
The scythe slipped from his grasp and fell on the ground.
Silence and darkness had become reality, but then you could hear the eerie note breaking again.
THE END.